Coraline: Things Are Not As They Seem
Coraline lay in bed, early morning sunshine seeping through the curtains. She had just awoken from the most horrible dream.
The Beldam had been following her. Coraline had been in some sort of shadowy mist world. She couldn't see anything around her, just swirling grayish white mist, until the Beldam came…
She had come, nine feet tall, swirling snake like hair, black button eyes glinting horribly. Coraline had run into the nothingness around her, hoping to escape, but no matter how fast she ran and regardless of which direction in the emptiness she took, the Beldam was constantly right behind her.
Coraline suddenly saw something in the mist before her. Other people. She hesitated, but then figured it couldn't be worse than the atrocity behind her.
She darted forward, and saw the welcoming figure of her parents, standing there, looking at her.
"Coraline, we've done a bad thing, and it can't be changed," they said.
"What?" Coraline was baffled. That made no sense. "Please help me, Mum and Dad! The Beldam, she's behind me."
"We can't help you," they said, looking at her. "We've become a danger, to us and you."
"No-WAIT!"
Her parents were turning, and disappearing into the mist.
"Coooraaliine. Waaaiiiit!"
Coraline felt the tips of the Beldams pointy nails scratch her shoulders. Coraline stiffened and could hardly even get a scream out. The tips ran up her neck, sending horrible chills down her spine. A hand clenched her shoulder and tugged. She would be pulled down and the Beldam would sew buttons onto her eyes. NO! NO! NO!
Her whole body seemed to refuse to respond.
Forward, run, just run.
Coralines brain suddenly regained control and Coraline darted into the mist, then realized she was falling…falling…falling…
"Corrraaaliiinee. Waiiiitt! Pleeeaassseee."
Suddenly and unfamiliar, male voice, laughed wickedly in the background.
Coraline had awoken in a cold sweat and now she lay in bed, trying to forget it, but she couldn't. She looked at her alarm clock. It was a bit too early to be up. Her parents wouldn't even be up yet. But there was no way she could go back to sleep.
She got up and padded to the kitchen, her fuzzy slippers making soft noises on the floor.
She went to the cupboard and found the tin of coffee and spooned some into the coffee maker. She'd seen her parents make it enough to know how to do it. She added in extra because she decided to have a cup of coffee herself. She added water and turned it on.
Pretty soon the kitchen was filled with the smell of coffee. Coraline grabbed the paper from the near the front door outside and then poured herself a cup. She added in some flavored creamer and tasted it. Not enough. She added more. Much better!
She sat drinking it. Normally, her parents would never allow her to drink coffee because they said it stunted a kid's growth, but she was really tired. She felt like she hadn't slept at all. She definitely needed some caffeine otherwise she would fall asleep in class and end up with detention most likely. Teachers acted like falling asleep in class was the worst sin in the world. Coraline realized it was disrespectful, but sometimes it's hard to stay awake and when the teacher is droning on about something boring and you didn't sleep well.
Coraline read the comics in the paper and finished her coffee and washed the cup out. She felt much better and awake.
She had the same dream the next night.
She awoke after it, scared and went to the kitchen where her mother was cooking breakfast.
"Can I have some coffee?" she asked. Since her mother was up, she knew she should ask before getting a cup. But she had a feeling she knew what the answer was.
"No, silly," said her mother. "You'll stunt your growth."
"Please! I'm so tired, I didn't sleep well," she pleaded.
"No, caffeine is bad for kids," her mother answered, sounding tired and annoyed.
"Aw, but Mum!"
"No buts, eat your eggs."
Her mother made herself a cup of coffee and added a bit of clear liquid from a small bottle, and then stuck it back into the cupboard, in the top shelf. Coraline wondered what it was.
Coraline went to school, tired, and had to struggle to keep awake.
Their English teacher was assigning a new project.
"Were going to practice writing short stories," she said, and a couple of boys in the back groaned. "No groaning! As I said, to practice our writing, we're going to write a short story. Now everybody get into groups of four to brainstorm. You must each write a separate story, but you can give each other ideas. I expect an outline by the end of class. If, when you get home, you decided to change your story idea, you can, but you must bring a well done outline to class and show it to me so I know your writing about something else.
They got into groups that the teacher assigned. Coraline found herself with three of the popular girls.
Coraline smiled and said hi and the girls returned it, but after that, they rather excluded her. Coraline tried to brainstorm with them, but they only replied with rather vague answers, like "Sure, like, I guess," and "If you want to write about that."
Coraline gave up and wrote ideas on her paper. This was her list.
A girl lives in a haunted house.
A boy becomes a famos football player and makes milions and uses his money to end world hunger.
A man discovers a secret portal to an alternite universe and finds a land of magical creetures.
Coraline nibbled the end of her pencil while the other three girls talked and chattered animatedly to each other, passing ideas between each other, ignoring their fourth team mate. She wondered if she spelled "alternite" wrong.
She decided she didn't like any of the ideas. The haunted house one seemed to similar to what she had gone through, with the Beldam. She didn't know anything about football really, because she thought it was boring, so that idea was out. And the man discovering a portal to a world with magical creatures, seemed a bit boring. What would he do after he found the magical creatures? She couldn't see it going anywhere past that.
She thought of a story she had written the past summer, about a girl who danced and danced. What her name? Pear, orange? Coraline thought for a moment. Apple! That was it. She decided she would write about a dancing girl.
She wrote the idea down.
A girl becomes a famous ballerina and uses the money she makes to end world hunger.
She started her outline, using her best handwriting, because the teacher said they would be graded on it. She turned it in to the teacher for grading when the bell rang.
When she got home, she dug in her room until she found the old sheet of paper she had written her story on the past summer.
CORALINE'S STORY
THERE WAS A GIRL HER NAME
WAS APPLE. SHE USED TO DANCE A LOT.
SHE DANCED AND DANCED UNTIL HER FEET TURNED INTO
SOSSAJES THE END.
Coraline smiled, seeing how she misspelled sossajes. She was pretty sure it was spelled, "Sosages".
Underneath was a picture of a dancing girl.
She took the paper to her father's study.
"Hi, Dad,"
"Hi, sweetie," he answered, sounding tired.
"In English, we have to write a story," said Coraline.
"That's nice." He didn't look away from the computer, where he was typing.
"We have to type it up at the end," said Coraline.
"Uh-huh," he answered.
Coraline peered at her dad's face. He looked exhausted. He had dark shadows under his eyes and the whites were blood shot. He'd broken a tooth a few weeks ago and had been to a dentist, and then got referred to a different dentist, who then referred him to a different dentist. They had all written him prescription for different medicines for pain. Her father hadn't gotten much work done during that time, and had to make up for it now. He spent more time than usual writing and writing. He looked irritated right now.
"Dad, what's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing, sweetie, I'm working," he answered.
"When are you going to be done?" asked Coraline. "I need help with my story."
"Coraline!" he snapped. Coraline tensed. Her dad looked really angry. "I need to work. Please go do your homework or something! Dinner's in the oven and will be ready in an hour."
"Okay," said Coraline, in a small voice. She left and moped off to her room.
Her father sighed. He couldn't focus on the article he was writing. He started to shake. He opened the door and pulled out a bottle of pills and stuck a couple in his mouth, following it down with a gulp of tea from his mug. After a bit, he started to feel better.
He knew he was in trouble.
Okay, this story is going be in chapters, instead of a longer one shot. I hope you enjoy! As for the dentist thing, and getting all the pills, this happened to someone I know, and you can probably guess what's happening.